Thread: Trading for a living. Can it become a reality?

Just wondering what will be the ideal goal that can be achieved on a consistent basis if one starts to trade for a living? Any members wanna share their stores?

I'm trading for a living. It's a very hard business. Very risky.
If I can advise you, I recommend you should think about earning money in real world first.
Trading is very competitive. If you hope to be successful, you have to be clever and hard-working type of person. Such a person should be able to establish small profitable business. Do it first, then think about trading.

Originally Posted by calmsoul

Just wondering what will be the ideal goal that can be achieved on a consistent basis if one starts to trade for a living? Any members wanna share their stores?

I think the answer depends on many factors particular to you such as how much money you need for "living" and how much capital you have for trading, what type of trades are you comfortable with etc...: i.e. what percentage you need to make on your trading capital on average to be able to remain afloat and what kinds of trading methods can you use for this purpose. E.g. in the extreme If you had a large enough capital base with enough slop you could even put it in the bank and live off the interest .....

Trading for a living is possible, however, it should be treated as a business. Do you business plan, set up your cash flow, set up your system and give you a realistic target and timeframe.
As 80% of business collapse due to undercapitalyze issue, trading is the same.
If you think, you can make it fresh and double your $500 account every month, don't even start. A 6 months cash to survive the learning curve is a minimum here.
Hope it help.

There are ways that peope take things from other people without breaking the law.
Politicians make the law to suit themselves.
Business people get a monopoly and squeeze the smaller people.
The markets are a legal way for smart powerful people to take money from less educated, or less professional people.
So trading is a bit like that ... the big guys and the system are set up in such a way already, that you will get squeezed, often, to see if you break and lose.

But skill also has a value. With skill the little guy can beat the big guy (occasionally!).
So look at performance sports, like soccer. The realy talented individual, one in a thousand, can move up the ranks, and get to the top.
The lesser ones who are not stars can still make a living if they really try hard.
But most of them don't, and just kick a ball around at the weekend from their main job.
Trading is like that too.

Trading is brutal because you need mental strength to survive being beaten again and again.
So think about boxing.
Skill, practice, performance, fitness, training, and the best boxers also have brains.
There are the stars who move up all the way to success they could not dream of.
Most boxers never make the big league, but more lesser ones make a living.
they survive with trying really hard, and being incrediblydetermined - more determined than normal people are.
Trading is like that too.

Then there are the accounts, the boring stuff, and the mathematical knowledge.
Small business owners have that, and determination, and they learn to adapt when the big business come along to take their clients with a loss making offer.
Traders have those skills too.

So you can see, trading is an allround performance sport, where the big guys will take everything they can from you, and you must play a perfect game to survive.
Then you make a living trading.

Don't forget there are ways to make a living connected to trading that are not actually doing the trading itself.
Accountants, advisors, analysts, trainers, psychologists, and so on ...
They are alternatives that more people use to make a living in finance, more people than there are traders do that.

Terrific post, Phi! Right on the button!
I think Trading for a Living is one of the most attractive but among the most difficult endeavor that one can undertake. It is because we need to get to the level of a champion sports person or champion-anything to become successful at trading. The real victory of a champion is truly the victory over himself. There are only so many champions in the world and similarly there are only so many successful top of the line traders in the world. The rest are also- rans. The difference here is that you can get by, make a living by being among the second or even third level sports person. But I dont believe you can really make a living out of being a second or third level trader. Look at the number of, for eg, Golfers. Not everyone is a Nicklaus or Woods but many of them manage to get by, earning something here and some more there. You cant really have that in trading. But the market works in wondorous ways!
It unfolds, every few years, a Bull market- which patches up all the errors we make and glosses over all our deficiencies- and gives us money despite all this. Then in the following Bear phase, we use our skills (whatever extent they may be) to survive until the next Bull phase comes along. The bear phase emphasizes the mistakes and punishes us more severely for the same and hence the need for skills to survive.
So my take is that the skill in trading is to learn to survive until the next linear phase of the market shows up. We must be geared to take advantage of that, for, if we miss it, then we are done in. Make enough in the linear phase (bull or bear) and you will be able to see thru the non linear phases (when it is really about protecting your stack). Thats how I see trading for a living.
Those who approach as a side line to 'add' to their income will find that they are actually 'subtracting' or even 'dividing' their income. Trading is a full time business. Period.
ckn